The Malayali are people who inhabit the South Indian state of Kerala and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and have the Malayalam language as their mother tongue. Malayali community in India has a history of immigrants to the region from various parts of the world, as well as a unique sub-culture owing to the tropical environment of the state. According to the Indian census of 2011, there are approximately 33 million Malayalis in Kerala, making up 96.7% of the total population of the state. Hence the word Keralite is often used synonymously with Malayali, though a proper definition is ambiguous.

Etymology

Malayalam, the native language of Malayalis, has its origin from the words mala meaning mountain and alam meaning land or locality. Hence the term Malayali refers to the people from the mountains who lived beyond the Western Ghats, and Malayalam the language that was spoken there.

Geographic distribution and population

According to the Indian census of 2001, there were 30,803,747 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 96.7% of the total population of the state. There were a further 701,673 (2.1% of the total number) in Karnataka, 557,705 (1.7%) in Tamil Nadu, and 406,358 (1.2%) in Maharashtra. The number of Malayalam speakers in Lakshadweep is 51,100, which is only 0.15% of the total number, but is as much as about 84% of the population of Lakshadweep. In all, Malayalis made up 3.22% of the total Indian population in 2001. Of the total 33,066,392 Malayalam speakers in India in 2001, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke the Yerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non- standard regional variations like Eranadan. As per the 1991 census data, 28.85% of all Malayalam speakers in India spoke a second language and 19.64% of the total knew three or more languages.